1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the preparation of a high protein whole egg replacer base that may be used either alone or with eggs or their components to form a whole egg replacer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are presently known numerous extenders for eggs, egg yolks or egg albumin. These extenders are much more limited in application and in the amount which can be used and have only the advantage of lowering the cost of the eggs used. They have little or no protein content. Therefore, the addition of the extenders reduces substantially the nutritional properties of the end product. In a number of cases, these additives do not provide any egg functionality other than possibly a slight increase in emulsification properties due to the presence of an emulsifier. The extenders also provide some liquid absorption properties. Typical of these materials are gums, starches, mono- and di-sacharides. An egg yolk extender could be used in preparing an extended whole egg. A typical extended egg yolk formulation consists of 80% egg yolk, 181/2% corn syrup solids, 1% vegetable gum and 1/2% lecithin. Basically, this type of extender adds sweeteners and starch to the product while reducing the protein content by one-fifth. The use of the egg yolk extenders has come about mainly because of cost considerations.
It has also been taught in U.S. Pat. No. 1,762,077, issued June 3, 1930 that lecithin emulsified food fat can replace egg yolks. Egg yolks can be extended up to 50% by the use of equal parts of egg yolk and lecithin emulsified with twice the amount of water (1 part lecithin - 2 parts water) as is disclosed in British Pat. No. 392,789, accepted May 25, 1933. Alien Property Custodian, 274,000 to Kramers, published May 4, 1943 discloses an egg substitute of casein, lecithin, fatty oils and optionally, a gum. However, it was found in Germany during World War II, that soy bean lecithin cannot fully replace egg yolk in baked goods (Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, 2nd Edition, 1965, Vol. 12, page 356).
Egg yolks can also be extended for use in some areas by the use of full fat soy flour. The main problem with the use of this material is the inability of the baker to replace the egg yolk in his recipe on an equal weight basis without the necessity of using a new recipe. This material is also unusable as a general egg yolk extender.
Most egg yolk extenders require an adjustment in the final recipe to obtain an equal functional replacement of the egg yolk. The egg yolk extender should also provide the emulsification and water binder characteristics of the egg yolk replaced. If the water binding characteristics are different, the baker's recipe would require variation in the amount of liquid added. Since egg yolk provides various functions, one or more of which may be required in any one recipe, the formulation of an egg yolk extender requires consideration of all the areas in which egg yolks are used and the functions the egg yolk performed in those areas.
Most known egg yolk extenders do not provide the generality of use desirable. The use of some egg yolk extenders is limited to the use for which they were developed. It would be commercially desirable to provide an egg yolk extender which can be used to replace egg yolk on an equal weight and functional basis without the need for modifying the end recipe as to the water content.
These problems have been overcome with a formulated composition of numerous ingredients as disclosed in my previous U.S. Pat. No. 3,864,500, issued Feb. 4, 1975 (Application Ser. No.: 381,416, filed 7/23/73, which was a CIP of Ser. No. 144,328, filed 5/17/71). There is disclosed in this patent the use of a high protein material as the starting material for an egg yolk substitute. The high protein material is prepared in accordance with my U.S. Pat. No. 3,697,290, issued Oct. 10, 1972 (Ser. No. 879,717, filed 11/25/69, which was a CIP of Ser. No. 846,428, filed 7/31/69). The high protein material is prepared by a process including the steps of:
A. simmering a non-elastic protein material such as sesame flour in salted oil;
B. adding a mild acid such as citric acid to bring out flavor;
C. adding water, vegetables, followed by boiling;
D. adding additional water and non-elastic protein material (sesame) and continued boiling; and
E. adding a thickening agent, continuing boiling to form the high protein material.
To this high protein material is added a food grade emulsifier; an appearance agent (spice mix) containing coloring agents such as carotene, tumeric and annato; texturizing agents such as alginates or carrageenan; lecithin and a neutralizer such as sodium bicarbonate.
A typical formulation includes:
______________________________________ High Protein Material Egg Yolk Extender ______________________________________ Vegetable Oil 8.32% High Protein Material 83% Sesame flour 40.26% Lecithin 4.0% Salt 5.37% Alginate 0.5% Citric Acid .43% Carrageenan 0.5% Potato Granules 4.03% Emulsifiers 5.0% Hydrogen Peroxide -- Sodium Bicarbonate 2.0% Soya Flour 16.10 Spice Mix 5.0% Corn Meal 6.71 100.0 Farina 10.74 Propylene Glycol 6.44 Carboxymethyl Cellulose 1.61 100.01 ______________________________________
It is taught in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,697,290 that this material will be an effective substitute for egg yolk. The material disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,864,500 has been found to be less than totally effective in forming a whole egg extender.